Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Lovers of Truth: C.S. Lewis and Elizabeth Anscombe
Lovers of Truth: C.S. Lewis and Elizabeth Anscombe
Apr 3, 2025 10:18 PM

The great Christian apologist, scholar, and novelist C.S. Lewis died 60 years ago today. Among his many memorable exchanges was one with philosopher G.E.M. be. The legacies of both would inform the faith and intellectual contributions of generations to follow.

Read More…

It was a night that would live in infamy. The great debater and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis was defeated by a woman—and a young Roman Catholic upstart philosopher at that.

Except that’s not quite what happened.

The indefatigable Stella Aldwinckle, chaplain of women students at Oxford University, had convinced 28-year-old Elizabeth be, a research fellow in philosophy at Somerville College, e speak at the Socratic Club.

Aldwinckle, described by Lewis’ student John Wain as “a formidable, crop-haired woman,” had founded the club six years earlier to answer the need for Oxford to have an “open forum for the discussion of the intellectual difficulties connected with religion and with Christianity in particular.” But first she needed a don or other senior member of the university to support the club. She asked Lewis, relatively fresh from atheism himself and just beginning his apologetics work on radio and in print. Lewis’ response was enthusiastic: “This club is long overdue! Come to coffee in my rooms on Tuesday, and we can talk it over.”

The first meeting was on Monday, January 26, 1942, at 8:15 p.m. Dr. R.E. Havard, a close friend of Lewis’ and a fellow Inkling, presented the paper, “Won’t Mankind Outgrow Christianity in the Face of the Advance of Science and Modern Ideologies?” Sometimes a second speaker would offer a response before the president opened the discussion to the rest of those in attendance. Even after the Monday evening meetings officially concluded at 10:30 p.m., the conversations would often continue informally into the night.

The club met during the high point of Lewis’ apologetics work. Over the next few years, as World War II climaxed and drew to a close, Lewis broadcast the talks that would e Mere Christianity. The Abolition of Man came out in 1943, and the first edition of Miracles was published in 1947. Several classic Lewis essays began as papers delivered to the club, such as “Is Theology Poetry?” and “Bulverism, or The Foundation of 20th-Century Thought,” and were later collected in God in the Dock and The World’s Last Night. The club would continue strong until February 1955, when Lewis moved to Cambridge and the philosopher Basil Mitchell was elected the new president. Over the next few years, its weekly meetings continued but attendance declined until it finally drew to a close in the summer of 1972, nine years after Lewis’ death.

Lewis wrote of the need for the club in the preface to the first Socratic Digest (1942-43): “In any fairly large and munity such as a university, there is always the danger that those who think alike should gravitate together into coteries where they will henceforth encounter opposition only in the emasculated form of rumour that the outsiders say thus and thus. The absent are easily placent dogmatism thrives, and differences of opinion are embittered by group hostility.” Whereas at the Socratic, “At the very least we helped to civilise one another.”

Aldwinckle had chosen well: her own energy and bined with Lewis’ generosity, wit, and adeptness in intellectual sparring made for a dynamic team. If nothing else, students e to watch Lewis give a good show and then leave with something to think about.

Lewis was not the only heavy hitter to grace the debate marquee. As befitting Oxford, some of the greatest philosophers and writers of the day spoke and sparred at the Socratic. E.L. Mascall, the venerable Anglo-Catholic theologian, took part, sometimes opening the discussion himself or participating as one of the questioners; at one event, he discussed “Rational Existentialism” with novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch. Dorothy Sayers, Lewis’ good friend and a translator, mystery novelist, and Christian apologist, was so impressed by the club that she immediately tried to start a London branch (which never got off the ground). Christopher Dawson presented on “Christianity and Humanism with Western Culture,” with a response by I.T. Ramsey. Scholar J.N.D. Kelly spoke on “The Gospels: History or Legends?”

“We never claimed to be impartial,” Lewis wrote:

But argument is. It has a life of its own. No man can tell where it will go. We expose ourselves, and the weakest of our party, to your fire no less than you are exposed to ours. Worse still, we expose ourselves to the recoil from our own shots; for if I may trust my personal experience, no doctrine is, for the moment, dimmer to the eye of faith than that which a man has just successfully defended. The arena mon to both parties and cannot finally be cheated; in it you risk nothing, and we risk all. [Preface for the first Socratic Digest, 1942–43]

Indeed, sometimes the discussions were between interlocutors pletely different sides of a question, such as Anglican priest Austin Farrer discussing “Did Christ Rise from the Dead?” with Jewish mythologist Robert Eisler. Lewis himself debated philosopher C.E.M. Joad on the claims of Christianity in January 1944.

During the 1940s, emotivism had been gaining in prominence. Emotivist ethics are a kind of anti-ethics: as one of its most famous and key proponents, A.J. Ayer, put it, ethical judgments are emotional valuations only, and hence nonfactual and meaningless. The statement “Stealing money is wrong,” wrote Ayer in Language, Truth and Logic (1936), “has no factual meaning—that is, expresses no proposition that can be either true or false.” For Ayer, the realm of morality was disconnected from the “real world.”

Ayer’s ideas took Oxford by storm, and ethics as a philosophical discipline continued its decline. Later, Richard Hare would develop this line of thinking and adjust it: for Hare, statements of value weren’t meaningless, but they were reflections of the principles one held, and one was responsible for living out one’s principles. However, there was still no way to argue that a certain act was evil.

Such ideas could only be possible in a world that had separated “fact” from “value/opinion”—a world that is still very much with us—and that treated nature, both human and nonhuman, as so much raw material to manipulate and upon which to impose meaning. Lewis would point his philosophical guns at emotivism and its near relations in his 1943 masterpiece, The Abolition of Man.

G.E.M. (or Elizabeth as she was more familiarly known) be—a cigarette-smoking (she’d later take up cigars instead), trouser-wearing philosophy tutor from Somerville College who also happened to be “one of the most formidable thinkers of her time” (Alan Jacobs) and who would e the foremost translator of Wittgenstein’s work into English—was also a staunch opponent of emotivism. Indeed, she was a devout Roman Catholic, and had been since she converted in her teens. By 1948, she had been married to fellow philosopher Peter Geach for seven years; their oldest child, Barbara, was five years old.

Though Lewis enjoyed pany of sharp and intelligent women like Dorothy Sayers, poet Ruth Pitter, and his future wife, Joy Davidman, he and be never formed a friendship, though they were Oxford colleagues and could enjoy a dinner together in pany of mutual friends. We don’t know what would have happened had they encountered each other more frequently, which, given their busy lives, and especially mitments to her work and family, was not likely.

The discussion on February 2, 1948, that would e legendary in Lewisiana was remarkable perhaps in part because it was not as entertaining and straight-up thrilling as many another discussion wherein Lewis, a “master of instant riposte” (Walter Hooper), could go at it with someone on the “other side.” be and he were on the same team—she a mitted Catholic, he a self-described “old-fashioned, square-rigged C. of E.” It was remarkable also that it put Lewis on the defensive. The young be was a bit like Lewis’ old tutor Kirkpatrick: she was exceptionally concerned with air-tight logical and philosophical integrity. Hence, she decided to focus her paper on what she deemed a weakness in one of Lewis’ arguments against mon enemy of philosophical naturalism.

This was be’s way: to lay into those with whom she agreed, to critique those on her “team” more so than the other side. Glibness was her bane, and anything she perceived as slick argumentation was repellent to her. Few could be said to be more serious or honest; she held herself to the same rigorous standards. “Bad arguments for the truth should be refuted,” she once told her daughter, the philosopher Mary Geach Gormally.

In Miracles, Lewis had argued that belief in reason’s validity does not square with the belief that human thought—belief itself—was the result of nonrational causes. be believed that Lewis had confused belief with grounds for a belief, and also that Lewis had confused irrational and nonrational causes: in her words, “I am going to argue that your whole thesis is … specious because of the ambiguity of the words ‘why,’ ‘because,’ and ‘explanation.’”

Indeed, be’s philosophical focus placed her in an exceedingly well-placed position to critique Lewis’ argument. Causation had been one of be’s central concerns since her teenage years. During the same period as when she was reading the lives of the English Catholic martyrs, she came upon the statement, “Anything es about must have a cause.” She thought this needed a good proof, so she tasked herself with finding an adequate one. Years later, she e up with several, but none of them satisfied her. Meanwhile, she had been received into the Catholic Church. Though much of her philosophical work would interest nonphilosophers, Mary Gormally has noted that be “was also interested in the sort of problems which only strike philosophers as problematic.”

be had made her case; it was time for Lewis to respond. At first, they spent a good amount of time clarifying terms. It’s not unfair to suppose that the discussion likely was above the heads of most people present.

Ultimately, Lewis responded by returning to his argument, thinking more carefully over his terms, and rewriting the chapter in question in the second edition of Miracles. He also suggested that be ought to succeed him as president of the Socratic Club (“Of course,” Dr. Havard recounted that Lewis later said to him, “she is far more intelligent than either of us”), though this sort of public position was not to be’s taste; indeed, she found public lectures far less to her liking than private discussions among colleagues, friends, and students. And though a skilled debater, her method of discussion was very different from Lewis’. Indeed, Lewis’ colleague George Watson muses that it was “his fondness for arguing both sides of a question [that] led, in some quarters, to a reputation for sophistry.” No one could have accused the incredibly intense and earnest be of dallying in a spirited bout of sparring for the mere fun of it.

Lewis valued not only the thrill, the cut and thrust, of debate, but also the convivial quality of sharpening: friends rades-in-arms, and friends would not only press the hard questions out of care and love for each other, but also challenge you to be the best you could be. If an argument could be made stronger, a friend’s task was to strengthen it. If the critique came not from a friend but a colleague, as be was, it was only meet for Lewis to understand the criticism and to use it to strengthen his argument, as he then did in the second edition of Miracles.

be reflected on the event later, impressed that Lewis had rewritten the chapter and had proved to be not as glib as she suspected. Indeed, her exacting standards found her own work to be glibber than she liked as well!

be was bemused at the reaction of people to the “debate” between her and Lewis: in a later note, she recognized his “honesty and seriousness”—both qualities she highly prized.

My own recollection is that it was an occasion of sober discussion of certain quite definite criticisms, which Lewis’ rethinking and rewriting showed he thought was accurate. I am inclined to construe the odd accounts of the matter by some of his friends—who seem not to have been interested in the actual arguments or the subject-matter—as an interesting example of the phenomenon called “projection.”

Michael Ward, echoing a line from G.K. Chesterton, has noted that Lewis “knew the difference between an argument and a quarrel.” In this, Lewis imitated his hero Chesterton, himself a hugely entertaining public debater as well as good friends with those who really were on the other side of the debate.

One of Lewis’ students, Derek Brewer, remembers that “one of his most notable characteristics as a man as well as a tutor was his magnanimity, his generous acceptance of variety and difference, sure of his own standards but tolerant of others, and of others’ ‘failings.’” He did not start out this way; indeed, it was through hard work that he became a generous debater and friend. The scholar and Cambridge literature professor George Watson attests that Lewis was “the best teacher I ever had, and the best colleague.” Lewis “did not ask or expect me to share his convictions,” says Watson, and “if I were ever to be asked what I learned from him, that would be my reply: the art of disagreement.”

be, too, was an intrepid teacher: students would spend long hours in tutorials with her, and, notes Benjamin b, she “liked nothing better than when one of her students challenged her own or Wittgenstein’s ideas.” Indeed, another student and eventual colleague recalled, “If I wrote … anything with which I thought she would agree, she attacked me more vigorously than ever.” be later supervised the doctoral thesis of Roger Scruton (1973), who would describe her as “perhaps the last great philosopher writing in English.”

be was fearless in her pursuit of the truth, not only in her work but also in her life. She became well known in 1956 for opposing Oxford’s awarding an honorary doctorate to Harry Truman because of his role in the destruction of innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki: “For men to choose to kill the innocent as a means to their ends is always murder,” she wrote. (She coined the term “consequentialism.”) She argued publicly for the Catholic Church’s teachings on life; she and her husband Peter celebrated with champagne when the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae was released, and she was arrested twice—once when nearly 70—for blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic.

be died shortly after giving her husband a last kiss on January 5, 2001, surrounded by family. She was 81. Each of her seven children have grown into practicing Catholics.

When considering how briefly to describe her longtime friend, the atheist philosopher of ethics Philippa Foot wrote in her journal a description that could very well fit Lewis himself, whose passing memorate today: “Truthful. A lover of truth.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Reflections on the Passing of Leonard P. Liggio
LiggioAlmost 20 years ago I was invited to speak at the celebratory banquet for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (now Atlas Network) and the Institute for Humane Studies, then celebrating their 15th and 35th anniversaries respectively. I was an alumnus of both and six years into the launch of the Acton Institute (founded in 1990). Both organizations considered me “successful enough” to reflect at the banquet on how each had influenced my life. It was an undeserved honor, of course,...
Socialists Love Everything About $20 Minimum Wages (Except Paying Such Wages Themselves)
There’s something almost charming about people in American who champion socialism. Yes, their economic views are naive and destructive. And yes most people (though especially the poor) would be much worse off if their vision for “progress” was actually implemented. But it’s hard to be too concerned when they are, at heart, really just capitalists who like to play political dress up. Consider one of their favorite causes, a $20 minimum wage. In their most recent party platform, the Freedom...
Why American slavery wasn’t capitalist
In his new book, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Edward E. Baptist “offers a radical new interpretation of American history,” through which slavery laid the foundation for and “drove the evolution and modernization of the United States.” In a review of the book for the Wall Street Journal, Fergus M. Bordewich concurs with this central point, noting that “Mississippi…does not have to look like Manchester, England, or Lowell, Mass., to make it...
Freedom, Security, and the iPhone
Writing on September 22 in the Wall Street Journal, Devlin Barret and Danny Yadron reported, Last week, Apple announced that its new operating system for phones would prevent law enforcement from retrieving data stored on a locked phone, such as photos, videos and contacts. A day later, Google reiterated that the next version of its Android mobile-operating system this fall would make it similarly difficult for police or Google to extract such data from suspects’ phones. It’s not just a...
Movies That Define America
Don’t you love lists? Intercollegiate Press does too, and they’ve put together “12 Movies That Defined America.” Feel free to argue, debate, add on, cross off as you wish. Here are just a couple of Intercollegiate Press’ choices: The Birth of a Nation – 1915, silent. The first blockbuster, D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation was both celebrated as a great artistic achievement and denounced as racist for its vicious depiction of African Americans and homage to the KKK....
Why Not Just Hand Over the Sermons?
After hearing the news that the city of Houston had ordered several pastors to submit their sermons for legal review, many people had the same reaction as Brian Lee: “My response? So what? Sermons are public proclamation, aren’t they?” Sermons are indeed proclamations intended for the public, and most pastors would be eager for anyone — including public officials — to hear them. So what is the reason for the current objection? Mollie Hemingway explains that the true “governing authorities”...
Is Money Just a Necessary Evil?
If money didn’t exist, would God have ordained that we invent it? Theologian Wayne Grudem says he would since money is simply a tool for our use that makes voluntary exchanges possible: Money makes voluntary exchanges more fair, less wasteful, and far more extensive. We need money in the world in order for us to be good stewards of the earth and to glorify God through using it wisely. If money were evil in itself, then God would not have...
Why Are So Many Americans Still on Food Stamps?
When the economy takes a downturn and unemployment rises, more people rely on the social safety net and programs like the recently renamed food stamp program called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). As the economy improves and employment increases, people need to rely less on government provided support. At least that’s what used to happen. But something has changed. From 1969 until 2003, SNAP has been very responsive to changes in the unemployment rate. But from 2003 to 2007, the...
Ladies: Give Us Your Most Productive Years, We’ll Hold Your Eggs For You
This story has so many things wrong with it, I hardly know where to start. Apple and Facebook have both announced that will now offer egg-freezing – for non-medical purposes – for their employees (which runs at least $10,000, plus a $500 to $800 annual storage fee.) For panies, it means two things. One, there is a demand from their employees for such an offer. Second, panies themselves see some benefit to this. What it sounds like is this: “It’s...
Rev. Sirico on the Vatican Synod
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Rev. Robert A. Sirico clears away the media hype surrounding the Vatican Synod on the Family and offers an analysis of its early work. He observes that nothing about the synod “challenges the dogma of the church related to the indissolubility of sacramental marriage, the use of artificial contraception, cohabitation and homosexual acts. What it did was soften the tone of these teachings.” But things got interesting. An early report led critics to say that...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved